Electronics Weekly
Specifically, Astroscale UK – a subsidiary of Japan-based Astroscale Holdings – describes it as a world-first Rendezvous Proximity Operations (RPO) mission. The system is being designed, manufactured and operated by Astroscale UK at the Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire.
ELSA-M stands for End-of-Life-by-Astroscale-Multiple. As the name suggests, the mission’s goal is dealing with multiple elements of space debris. It involves close-approach rendezvous operations and magnetic capture.
“Completing the Critical Design Review for ELSA-M is both a major step for the mission itself and also a major achievement for the UK ISAM industry,” said Nick Shave, Managing Director, Astroscale UK.
“The mission is a true partnership between Astroscale UK, the UK Space Agency, ESA and Eutelsat with many industrial partners in the Astroscale ISAM supply chain across all regions of the UK. With the ever-growing number of satellites in Earth’s orbit, the robust RPO and spacecraft capture capability provided by ELSA-M will revolutionise the delivery of repeatable ADR and other ISAM services as part of a future circular space economy.”
ELSA
As mentioned, the ELSA-M In-Orbit Demonstration mission is supported by the UK Space Agency. This is done through the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Connectivity and Secure Communications Directorate.
The mission is actually majority funded by Astroscale’s own private funding, with the remainder from the UK Space Agency, via ESA and Eutelsat.
A OneWeb satellite is involved in the tests.
CDR
“Astroscale’s successful CDR marks a positive progression for our joint efforts to support, test, and validate innovative in-orbit servicing technologies, crucial for the long-term preservation of space as a valuable natural resource,” said Guillaume Scottez, Senior Director for Innovation at Eutelsat Group.
“With this milestone, we look forward to our continued collaboration with ESA, the UK Space Agency, and Astroscale to advance our mission.”
ELSA-D
Previously, the ELSA-D mission (End-of-Life-Services by Astroscale-Debris) concluded in May 2022. This was described as the first commercial mission to demonstrate on-orbit satellite servicing.
The Final Phase of the ELSA-M mission will launch some time after April 2026
The UK Space Agency commented on the completion of the CDR:
“We are excited to support Astroscale UK’s pioneering ELSA-M mission, which represents a significant leap forward in satellite servicing and orbital sustainability,” said the agency’s Joshua King, Telecommunications Investment Lead.
“This milestone not only underscores the UK’s leadership in ADR but also highlights our commitment to providing new technologies and capabilities to support satellite communications. The successful completion of the Critical Design Review is a testament to the exceptional collaboration between Astroscale, ESA, and Eutelsat within the Sunrise Partnership, and we look forward to the successful launch next year.”
Sunrise
Funding for ELSA-M follows from the securing of the contract with Eutelsat OneWeb. As referenced by King, this was as part of the Sunrise Partnership Project.
This is a public-private partnership between ESA and the Eutelsat Group. It forms part of ESA’s wider Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme. This aims “to develop solutions for future generation telecommunication satellite missions”. Both the ARTES and Sunrise get funding from the UK Space Agency.
ClearSpace
A UK rival for debris removal services is ClearSpace UK. It is the UK subsidiary of its Swiss parent company, which is based in Lausanne.
In May it was celebrating completing Phase 2 of CLEAR, another UK Space Agency active debris removal (ADR) mission.
The London-based company highlighted a number of technological milestones in Phase 2. The spacecraft’s robotic capture system, for example, passed mechanical derisking tests, proving it can withstand the harsh launch loads.
ClearSpace image processing algorithms were also in-use in a realistic environment. Specifically, to detect and track space debris.
Image: Eutelsat OneWeb
See also: Astroscale secures funding for Final Phase of ELSA-M In-Orbit demo
